Trapped in a Box

Trapped in a box of tremendous size
It distorts my vision, it closes my eyes

-No Doubt, “Trapped in a Box”

When we judge others, we put them in neat little boxes according to how we believe they will behave. It is a fact of human nature that we automatically make some kind of judgment about another person as soon as we lay eyes on them, and our judgment is often based on how that person looks.

Oh, that person looks just like that guy who used to bully me in middle school. He must be a terrible person, too.

Of course, we may not consciously think that, but prejudices are implanted into our minds. We might have had a bad experience with a person of a particular religion, and because of that, we are wary of all people who follow that religion.

Sometimes our judgments about people may be right, but most of the time, they are wrong. It is true that you may be able to determine some things about a person by the way they look or by the way they dress, but you can never presume to know everything. So when you judge others, you’re really trapping yourself in a box… a box with a very small window.

We all judge. I must have done it at least three times today. But now I catch myself right after I make some kind of assumption about a person and think, They’re probably not like that at all. It’s a hard habit to break, and because we are all human and human nature often gets the best of us, we may never completely break the habit. Even so, think twice before you pass judgment on someone. A person who looks like they might be your worst enemy could end up being your best friend… and vice versa.